Samsung's Galaxy S 2: The Smoothest Scrolling Android Device Around

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• claytontullos - Monday, September 12, 2011 - link

  Sometime in the next few months I will be buying a new large smartphone... my nokia n900 just isn't doing it for me anymore.
  
  I'm leaning towards a 4.3 or 4.5 inch smartphone as something to blur the line between smartphone and tablet. The other requirement is that the phone be compatible with squareup's credit card reader (I may be opening my own business as a solo soon) which nixes all windows phones.
  
  I currently live in an area with ~200,000 people which no carrier as announced plans to bring 4g too... anyway 3g is fast enough for any feature I would use on the phone.
  
  I suppose the point of the above ramble is to point about that the Galaxy S 2 looks like a contender, I just wish I knew what was upcoming in the pipeline.

• Omega215D - Monday, September 12, 2011 - link

  Phonescoop, phonearena, and engadget mobile tend to give an outlook on future devices, though they are all speculative as handset manufacturers and providers have final say on when a device is released.

• dagamer34 - Monday, September 12, 2011 - link

  You'll always be waiting for a phone of the future but this phone is very good now. 2 years from now, you won't be laughed at for having a Galaxy S II.

• DanNeely - Monday, September 12, 2011 - link

  I'm not sure what you can take from not yet being listed by anyone for 4g expansion plans. AFAIK VZW hasn't published any detailed 2012 plans, but with a goal of full coverage sometime in 2013 I'd expect to see most places that aren't minimally inhabited cornfields/forests to get their 4G coverage next year.

• Johnmcl7 - Monday, September 12, 2011 - link

  I've also got a N900 which is sadly feeling pretty old given support has been dropped for a long time, I've tried both a Galaxy S2 and Sensation and while the Galaxy was very impressive I don't know if I can live without a keyboard. Annoyingly we're not getting the Droid 3 in the UK or so it seems as that seems the closest replacement for the N900.
  
  John

• webmastir - Monday, September 12, 2011 - link

  this phone looks promising for sure

• OBLAMA2009 - Monday, September 12, 2011 - link

  learn to read

• asmoma - Monday, September 12, 2011 - link

  Every windows phone 7.0 phone only have a adreno 200 GPU. And you(Anand) described the user interface "liquid". I have a HTC mozart and every microsoft developed app runs at 60 fps.
  Even the 1. generation iphone does have enough gpu "horsepower" and memory bandwidth to scroll at 60 fps (480x320).
  
  I would not blame the scrolling performance on the hardware.

• steven75 - Monday, September 12, 2011 - link

  Yeah it's definitely the OS. Not sure why Anand doesn't just come out and say that the core of the OS is still not 3D accelerated.

• ph0tek - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link

  It's stated both here and in the review that the Android UI and browser are GPU accelerated on most Android phones. It's not just the hardware here that makes it smooth. But so far Samsung have done the best job of accelerating the UI.
  
  By default Android 2.3 is not GPU accelerated so it's left up to the manufacturers. But Android 3.0 on tablets is GPU accelerated by default. Icecream Sandwich will surely bring GPU to phones without the manufacturer having to do it.
  
  I've also tested this by clocking my own GSII down to 800MHz using the Set CPU app, and even at this speed it's just as smooth as any iPhone. Even at 500MHz it's still good. So it's not just the hardware, it is actually GPU accelerated.
  
  I do think it's taken Google WAY too long to get GPU acceleration though.